As the final months of the year approach, the movie industry is gearing up for the final push to bring in more more box office revenue, and gross ticket sales. Many of the movie being released are being pushed. Stores are already starting to put up their holiday displays, by the time, the holidays are over, folks will be tired of seeing them in every store they go into. Much less the folks who work in the stores. The holiday season has become so commercialized in the last 50 years or so, it very easy to forget what the holidays themselves were intended to be for in the first place. The question then becomes, what point of all of the sales, to celebrate the individual holidays, and the spirit behind them, or are they as I suspect a excuse to have sales and increase the bottom lines for the year, and reduce inventory, they have to account for at the end of the year? The television networks will prade out out their traditional line-up of holiday shows, ala," Its a Charlie Brown Christmas", "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" among others. I remember seeing these as along as I can remember. To be fair, there is some "Comfort Food" in seeing the old shows, particularly for us Baby Boomer, and older.

I don't mean to sound cynical, I'm not, at least totally, but a realist might be a better word. Call a sale for what it is, essentially a money grab to get consumers hard earned money, thats not even counting the rest of the holiday culture, which exist today. While there are a great many people who are celebrating Christmas for the right reasons, and enjoying Thanksgiving, as it should be a time to gather with close family and friends, and reconnect with folks, one hasn't seen in a long time, Theres a bigger percentage of folks who only see Christmas and the holidays as excuses to get more presents and material goods, I admit its nice when ones wife thinks enough o you to spend serious money and get you what she knows you've wanted for many years,. I know I really appreciated it last year. But how much one spends shouldn't be the point, its giving one you love, what you know they want/need. And doing it with love and because you love them.

If there is one point to the above essay, it is simply this: Take the time to tell the people in your life that you love them, and appreciate them. You may not be able to give them big expensive gifts, so give them something you made with your own two hands and heart It will mean as much or more then a fancy gift you bought. Sometimes just being around to help is worth more then one can ever know. So folks take time of year to reevaluate your core values and what you believe in and take stock of your life and decide what is most important, and live accordingly not just until January 1, 2014, but through the rest of the year.